Luke Cooper Awarded West Riding FA Volunteer of the Year
PAR002_123 • 16 August 2018
Calverley coach and volunteer Luke Cooper presented award at Elland Road
After being nominated and then being awarded the Coopers' Cup Volunteer of the Year at the club's presentation day back in May, Luke Cooper has gone on to receive the Volunteer of the Year accolade within the whole West Riding County FA for the previous season gone by.
Calverley coach and volunteer Luke was nominated for the countless hours and effort that he puts into the club, coaching three age-groups and assisting the committee in running the club. Luke, alongside James Clayton and Nick Baker have also put in a lot of effort to start up a new girl's football section at the club which has so far been successful with more than 30 girls aged 4-7 attending training.
Luke said " It was great just to be nominated. I don't expect recognition for what I do but it does make everything feel worth it when people are thankful for what you do. I'm a strong believer in recognising and applauding those who do good things so it's touching that someone has done that for me. The award is dedicated to everyone who has done so much for this great community club in the past and present. That includes my late father, David Cooper, former Chairperson of the club and also my Coach, who has inspired me to give back to the club I have played and coached for since I was six years old. There's a bright future for grassroots football in Calverley and it's a great feeling to be a part of it.
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We were already so proud as a club for what we have achieved and developed since our humble beginnings but even more so over the last several years... this is what the West Riding FA had to say about some of our successes: Calverley United Junior Football Club has come together over the difficult last year we’ve all faced and offered everyone involved support, encouragement and hope. They’ve worked hard to become a Community Charter Standard Club, achieved last year, and their acceptance as a new Wildcats Centre, helping further grow local girl’s access to football and fitness. The hard work behind the scenes often goes unnoticed but the Club does so many things, like as developing a Youth Committee to help inform the Club’s DNA, improving the whole experience for everyone involved. The positive impact in the local community is truly phenomenal. They’ve grown the girls game from 5 girls, on a mixed team 4 years ago, to nearly 100 girls training and playing regularly, and their first ever girls’ team reached the West Riding Cup Final last year. Behind the scenes volunteers have worked really hard to help improve access to better pitches and facilities. During lockdown the club inspired over 180 players and coaches to contribute to the #PassTheBallNotTheVirus challenge, just one example that shows what an impressive, inclusive, and well-loved community club they are. They’re a small village club which has doubled in size over the last 5 years, even though there are a lot of clubs nearby with huge catchment areas and all without an official clubhouse and limited use of pitches. It’s the volunteers that makes the club stand out, they really do inspire the children from the local community, and further afield, to be the best they can be. They’ve come together to raise money for community, school and sports defibrillators and they’ve worked so hard to ensure that each return to football following lockdown is as safe, and fun, as it possibly can be. It was also double delight for the club to see that Luke Cooper had also won Coach of the Year for youth players. Congratulations to everyone at the club.
We are all delighted that grassroots football will return at the end of March! For now, our managers, club committee, the leagues and the West Riding FA are working extremely hard to fine tune all details so that we can all safely return. How we do that, is yet to be be confirmed but please wait to hear from your team managers.
Challenge Completed! We have completed our Around (Through) the World challenge in flying colours, with a week to go and 500km over what we needed! With JustGiving and cash totals, we have also raised a staggering £1649! This will all go towards the David Cooper Memorial fund and in doing so, it will be there to purchase another defibrillator for a community, school or sports club as well go towards the upkeep of the 7 other defibrillators we have been a part of fundraising for. The idea of the challenge was to also give players and their families that extra little motivation to get out and get moving in whatever way, which has been important more than ever during this third lockdown! And maybe a boost for some to go the extra mile than what they already do! And I really hope that it has helped to do just that. I (Luke) just want to say the most massive well done and thank you to everyone who has got involved with the challenge and supported it by donating. You are all incredible.
On the 16th March 2020, football came to a complete stop. The world faced a global pandemic with the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus and the whole country went on lockdown. Work places were closed with only key workers keeping the country going. The club rallied together, which was easy enough to do in this modern era of technology and we shared one simple goal; to pass the ball, not the virus...
For the first time in 2020, we will be running an FA Wildcats Centre for Girls aged 5-11. This will be an opportunity for any girl aged 5-11 to play football, as well as being another route into our girls' football teams. The overarching aim of the centre is to provide a safe environment where all girls, even with no experience can; have fun engaging with sport, develop fundamental skills, try a variety of sessions, learn new things and create foundations for a lifelong love of sport. All of our coaches at the Wildcats Centre are volunteers, whom are usually parents of players and live in and around the local community. Volunteers present will hold an up to date CRC at a minimum and there will always be qualified FA coaches trained in football, first aid and safeguarding children present too. We will be announcing dates, times and other details of the Wildcats Centre in the coming weeks!
The club's AGM is set to take place on Wednesday 16th September 2020 at 7.30pm via Webex Video Call (link below). If you are connecting from a mobile device, make sure that you have the application downloaded beforehand. Meeting Number (access code): 137 517 6675 Meeting password: snSriCXC683 Join meeting: https://brightcloud.webex.com/brightcloud/j.php?MTID=m3049da3f2bde6179d84a9f6244a6181b As well as an opportunity for all members to have their say and discuss any matters important to them, an election for the following club committee roles will take place: Chairperson Vice Chairperson Club Secretary Treasurer Club Welfare Officer Lettings Officer Registration Officer Football Development Officer Website/Social Media/Press Officer Club Development Officer (x2) General Committee Member(s) Members are allowed to volunteer themselves for a role, bust must be nominated twice by others at the AGM. For any further information or to volunteer for a role please contact the club secretary, Jon Zoltie via email, jonzoltie@gmail.com.
We are absolutely delighted to announce that we, Calverley United Junior & Senior Football Club have been approved by the West Riding County FA as an FA Charter Standard Community Club. This is the highest standard that a grassroots club can achieve and we are sure everyone connected to the club are very proud of that. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all past and present volunteers that have helped lead the club to this achievement and here is to many more years of providing football to our community!
Last season the David Cooper Memorial and Community Shield tournament made its second appearance, and after successfully raising nearly £1000 at both events we have helped to fund raise for more community defibrillators such as the one now at Calverley C of E Primary School. The format of the tournament this year will consist of 7x 7v7 teams made up of the player's parents and coaches. There will be most likely someone you know who is playing so please come down and support them, or regardless, just enjoy some good old competitive football whilst supporting an important community cause. All details can be found in the picture above. All of the money raised from this year's tournament will go towards another defibrillator for somewhere in and around the community. All of the proceeds will go towards the defibrillator fund.
The club are delighted to announce they are having another club photo day for the 2019-20 season, sponsored by Club Legends! It will be held on Saturday the 28th September at Calverley Cricket Club. Timings are as follows: 10.00am U13 Boys 10.15am U6 Boys 10.30am U6 Girls 10.50am U7 Boys 11.10am U15 Boys 11.30am U7 Girls 11.50am U8 Boys 12.10pm U9 Boys 12.30pm U9 Girls 12.40pm U10 Boys 13.00pm U11 Boys 13.10pm U12 Boys 13.30pm U14 Boys 13.45pm U5s The great news is that there is no cost for anyone involved and you only need to be there for around 10 minutes. Just take a look at this video here for all the information that you may need about how the day works: https://youtube.com/watch?v=UaMeE90rKDs . If you have children in different age-groups, you may bring them both to one of the time slots to have their photos taken at the same time. There is no requirement to buy any of the photos but we are sure that all of our players will look fantastic and feel the part when they see them. For anyone interested in what the photos may look like and products available after the photo shoot just visit this link: http://www.clublegends.co.uk/products-and-prices/#football Please be aware at some point you will receive a text message and/or email confirming your child's details and time slot. Please ensure that these details are correct, write the date, time and venue down in the diary and we will look forward to seeing you on the day. Oh and make sure your child remembers their full kit and cheesiest smiles!
A huge thank you to everyone who participated in the raffle, raising vital funds for the club to put on its annual presentation day! Prizes are to be collected from the Calverley Conservative Club. Here are the winners: 1437 - Denis Birrane (MAIN PRIZE) 941 - Greg Wye 1392 - Jason Clough 1441 - Kev Halls 1179 - Martin Price 1284 - Lowery 1355 - Joanne Bowans 120 - Max Peel U6 591 - LBK U8 Girls 452 - Bobby U8s 525 - Joel G U8 573 - No Name 103 - Jack S U5 921 - Dave Beck 1309 - Yvonne H 1467 - Amelia Lockwood 450 - Seb U8 459 - Jacob U8 561 - U8 Girls Summer 437 - Freddie T U8s 1310 - Danny H 60 - Alfie K U5s 398 - Max A U7s 1450 - Dave H 457 - Jacob U8 472 - Zak U8 Thank you to Dylan Littlewood, who independently drew the raffle. If anyone has any questions about the raffle or about picking up their prize please contact CUJFCLuke@gmail.com. A huge thank you to all of our age-groups who donated the raffle prizes, as well as parents from the U5s donating several bottles of spirits and beer, as well as Essence Massage for donating a sports massage voucher.
